Wimbledon 2022, 1st round, Tuesday, 28.06.2022
The Austrian tennis hopes at Wimbledon, they rest entirely on Dennis Novak! How well the 28-year-old can now handle the pressure will be shown on Tuesday. The luck of the draw has given him an absolutely doable task.
Bet365 is sure that he will master this challenge. After surviving the qualifying round, I take a close look at the chances of victory in my Novak Bagnis and reveal why I wouldn’t bet on a too-fixed end to the match!
Starting strong, shaking strong, finishing strong – Dennis Novak experienced quite a rollercoaster ride in the last round of the qualifiers. He had beaten Jonas Forejtek and Federico Gaio easily, but then Stefan Kozlov came along.
The Austrian was already ahead 7-5, 6-4 before his nerves started to shake. 5-7, 3-6, the last set had to decide. Novak once again mustered all his strength, won 6-3 and celebrated his well-deserved entry into the main draw.
Perhaps he will have been thinking back four years, because in 2018 he showed the tennis world what he can do on grass. Novak fought his way into the 3rd round as a qualifier, where he was eliminated in four tough sets against Milos Raonic.
After the French Open, where he dropped out in the first round of qualifying, he took part in three less well-staffed Challengers and failed to convince. All the more praiseworthy that he has now made it into the main draw.
Coach Günter Bresnik summarises: “He is playing far below his value. Dennis always plays great in training. It’s only in the tournaments that he can’t translate that yet.” He also referred to his protégé’s strong Wimbledon record.
If you add in the qualifying, there are 13 wins to four losses. This is probably one of the reasons why the world number 155 is the clear favourite with the bookmakers, with an average of 1.15 against 5.10.
Facundo Bagnis is actually ahead of him in the world rankings, 102nd to be exact, but since neither Russian nor Belarusian players are allowed to compete at Wimbledon, he automatically slipped into the main draw.
Bagnis has never celebrated a victory on the hallowed turf, so he doesn’t know what 1st round success feels like. His preparation for the third Grand Slam of the year was correspondingly bumpy.
At the Challenger in Oeiras, he made it to the semi-finals, but there he was also seeded second. Bagnis only scores points when the other participants are seeded behind him. Novak would be exactly that, so does the outsider have a real chance on Tuesday after all?
The 32-year-old has made it past the first round exactly four times in the many years he has been on the Grand Slam stage. So it’s no wonder that the betting companies don’t have too much confidence in him.
My Novak Bagnis Tip
For Dennis Novak, another really successful tournament could finally click into place at Wimbledon.
Facundo Bagnis’ record is not particularly successful in 2022 or at Wimbledon, he has never won in the main draw. But since I don’t trust Novak to win outright, the wobbles are too big, I send the following tip into the race:
We see more than 34.5 games!
